Orthodoxy in Russia, 1914 – 1964: An Attempt at Studying and Public Memory in the Discourse of Repression and the Search for Alternative Cognitive Approaches

The article studies the specific historiographical situation that was shaped in the studies of the recent history of Orthodoxy in post-Soviet period. It describes influencing factors forming important plot-thematic limitations in recent history of Orthodoxy. Long-lasting cognitive and source limitations of the Soviet time and the ensuing archives revolution of the 1990s sparked a surge in interest to Orthodoxy and triggered a large number of publications, both scholarly and journalistic ones, devoted to Soviet era. In publications of that period the discourse of repression was prevailing, with the dominant narrative line being the exposure and description of different repressions against the Russian Orthodox Church, political and administrative pressure, and the restrictions in the activity of religious organizations as well as the destinies of repressed clergy. The amount and thematic predominance of the publications in the 1990s set up a pattern for interpreting the history of Orthodoxy as the time of repression and an era of victims and executioners. Such simplified approach was particularly widely spread in regional research of Orthodoxy, which interfered with a search for new determinants and conceptual interpretations of the recent history of Orthodoxy. The article aims at a systematic analysis of a number of ideas and trends for treating the history of Orthodoxy over the last 30 years of the Soviet era.